Ellis Island

Ellis Island lies in Upper New York Bay, just north of Liberty Island and close to the New Jersey shore. It is federal property and has been part of the Statue of Liberty National Monument since 1965, managed by the National Park Service. The only way to reach it is by ferry.

From 1892 to 1954 the island was the main federal immigration station for the Port of New York. About 12 million immigrants passed through, and by one estimate around two-fifths of Americans have an ancestor who arrived here. The island was expanded with landfill many times to fit new buildings.

The main building, rebuilt in brick and limestone after a fire in 1897 and reopened in 1900, is now the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration. The Registry Room, or Great Hall, on the second floor, where arrivals waited for inspection, has its tiled vaulted ceiling. Exhibits cover the inspection process, the immigrants' journeys and the wider history of migration to the United States.

The American Immigrant Wall of Honor outside lists hundreds of thousands of names, and the American Family Immigration History Center lets visitors search passenger records. On the south side, the former Immigrant Hospital can be seen on separate guided hard hat tours.

Statue City Cruises is the only authorised ferry operator, leaving from Battery Park in Manhattan and Liberty State Park in New Jersey. The National Park Service charges no entrance fee, but a ferry ticket is required: $25.50 for adults, $22.50 for seniors aged 62 and over and $16.50 for children aged 4 to 12, with under 4s free. The ticket covers both Liberty Island and Ellis Island, and ranger and audio tours are included. The hard hat hospital tours cost an extra $50 and are open only to visitors aged 13 and over. Security screening is required before boarding.

The island takes its name from Samuel Ellis, a merchant from Wrexham in Wales who bought it in 1774. Earlier, the Mohegan called it Kioshk, Gull Island, and the Dutch acquired it in 1630. Fort Gibson, built on the island, was named after Colonel James Gibson, killed at the Siege of Fort Erie in the War of 1812.

The station of the 1890s was designed for an average of 1,000 arrivals a day and up to 4,000. The landfill extension known as Island 2, made in 1899, needed War Department approval because it lay in New Jersey's waters. The main building's roof was damaged in the 1916 Black Tom explosion, and by 1918 the Great Hall had its arched ceiling of Guastavino tiles. Arrivals dropped by about 97 per cent during the First World War, from 878,000 in 1914 to 26,000 in 1919, and only about 1 per cent of those inspected were deported.

After the station closed, plans came and went. In 1959 Frank Lloyd Wright designed a $100 million scheme for the island but died before presenting it. Take an early ferry to see Ellis Island before the midday crowds, and allow at least two hours for the museum.